Many years ago in an interview, I was asked, “What makes you angry?” I thought about it. I’m not easily provoked, but if there’s one thing that upsets me it’s injustice. On many levels, injustice moves me to action. It can be injustice against the Jewish community or American principles; it can be injustice in business and government; and, it can be injustice between one person and another. From this long list, it sounds like I could be upset most of the time, but it’s not true.
In my rabbinate, I’ve learned how to allocate time and resources to fight injustice against the Jewish community and American principles. The leadership of ADL, AJC, AIPAC, and others help us stand up for Jews and Jewish interests here and abroad. ACLU helps to uphold the boundaries between church and state; and non-profits like United Way restore justice to the most vulnerable individuals and their families. But, it’s my personal passion to fight injustice against others, and to advocate for human dignity.
My passion developed in childhood. Like some of you, I wasn’t picked first to play on sports teams in school, but I was among the top picks for classroom challenges. So, I learned how to earn respect from the athletes and to earn my place among the better students. Later in life and away from home, I faced authority figures at work and in the community. Some were respectful and respected. Others were not; they were ruthless and ill-tempered. They served themselves by degrading others. They lacked respect for anyone’s authority but their own. Sometimes I stood up to them. Sometimes, I fought back through appropriate channels. Other times, I walked away from them and never turned back.
You and I learn from past experiences, but we owe our passion to what we learn in this week’s Torah portion. In Bereisheet, the first portion in the Book of Genesis, we learn that in the beginning, God created one man. Our rabbis asked, “Why did God create only one man, Adam?” They answered, “So that no one could ever say, ‘My father is greater than yours.’” We might be taller or shorter, smarter or simpler, heavier or lighter, kinder or meaner, but there is no one who is inherently more deserving than anyone else. There is no person who doesn’t deserve justice and human dignity.
Justice and human dignity are expressed in many ways. They’re seen in common acts of compassion and loving-kindness; in opportunities for work and home and food; in the freedom to choose one’s way in the future; and, in the possibility to regain a foothold in the arms of a caring community. Justice and human dignity must resemble these examples, because I can’t imagine the alternative. Sadly, too many only know the alternative. That’s why we keep fighting for what we know is right and just. It has been expressed in so many words and languages, but it started in the expectation that when God created human life, the first soul would be the father of us all.
Whether or not we read the Bible story as fact, fiction, or metaphor, it teaches a human lesson about who we are at our essence. We are born without sin to live a life of choices between good and evil; and at the end of our lifetime, we are reminded, “For dust you are; and to dust you shall return.” We are equal in birth and in death. Only over the course of our lifetime can we stand out, but only in relation to the measure of our deeds.
From my family to yours, Shabbat Shalom.
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